As the sabre-rattling over possible sanctions against Russia’s nuclear industry intensifies, the country’s state-owned energy company Rosatom is busily drumming up new business in Africa. Last month, speaking at the African Energy Indaba in Cape Town, Rosatom’s chief executive for central and southern Africa, Ryan Collyer, urged the continent’s most industrialised country, South Africa, to press go on its nuclear programme to ensure “stable, affordable and environmentally friendly” power. While nuclear power provides about 10 per cent of electricity generated globally, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the Koeberg plant in Cape Town is the only nuclear power station on the African continent. Yet a number of African countries have announced plans to build nuclear power plants in the past year — including Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. Russia’s frenetic push into African markets comes as calls intensify to institute sanctions on Rosatom, including from several EU countries, in response to Putin’s war in Ukraine.

FINANCIAL TIMES